These Six Scientist Traits Will Help Your Homeschooling

By Linda Dobson

Homeschooling is an on-going experiment in which individual families try different methods, resources, schedules, locations, mentors, and heaven knows what else in an ongoing journey toward the best education for each individual child. Since homeschooling is like conducting an experiment, it helps greatly to develop some of the traits any good scientist brings to investigation.

What are these traits, and how will they help your family?

Six Scientist Traits Help Your Homeschooling

AN OPEN MIND

Be especially willing to consider learning beyond the narrow context of schooling, especially if you are turning to homeschooling because of school-induced problems. The best way to do this is to make learning about educational approaches your new hobby. In this way you can open-mindedly consider and compare the many alternatives.

OBSERVATION SKILLS

Learn to really watch your children – preferably without interruption – as frequently as possible. This will help you discover their likes and dislikes, natural inclinations, and more. (To learn more about observing and using clues, see Homeschooling the Early Years: Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 3- to 8-Year-Old Child [Prima, 1999].) Quantum physics now verifies that the observer does indeed have an effect on the observed. For your homeschooling family, this creates a nice balance between head and heart, between science and art. It’s a balance unachievable in any other educational situation.

CURIOSITY

Get back in touch with the curiosity you had as a child. Dare to ask why, how, and what if. The more inspired the questions you ask, the more quickly and easily your answers will come.

FLEXIBILITY

An experiment means the results cn be (and often are) a surprise. Limber up now so that when your experience blows your preconceived notions out of the water, you’ll land on your feet, ready to move on to discover something new.

CREATIVITY

Great and useful inventions exist because folks either look to use existing materials in a brand-new way or within their minds conceive of something entirely new. Exercise your creativity muscles, and you’ll be doing the same for your children’s education.

I almost didn’t add this to our list, as there is much misunderstanding regarding the patience required to be a homeschooling parent. The mistake is considering patience in terms of spending a lot of time with one’s child, or getting him to sit still and read textbooks all day. Any effort to further develop patience is better spent on realizing that your experiment is a work in progress and will never be “finished,” for just as you reach a comfortable fit between child and education, life will throw you another variable. Your child grows older, her interests change, someone gets sick, you take a new or different job. The list is endless; thus so is your experiment.